Hollingworth quits

Peter Hollingworth has succumbed to months of controversy over his handling of child sex abuse complaints by announcing his resignation as Australia's Governor-General.

Dr Hollingworth will hand a formal resignation letter to Prime Minister John Howard at Government House in Canberra today - less than two years into his five-year term.

In a short statement late yesterday, Dr Hollingworth said he was resigning to protect the vice-regal office from persisting controversy based on what he called "misplaced and unwarranted allegations" against him.

"It is with deep regret and after much thought that I have today advised the Prime Minister that I wish to resign from the office of Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia," he said.

He made the statement after speaking several times at the weekend to Mr Howard, who had declined in recent days to express confidence in Dr Hollingworth, but had also declined to sack him.

Mr Howard, who will write to the Queen informing her of the decision, refused to comment on the departure last night. But the Prime Minister's office said the resignation was "the Governor-General's decision".

Today's meeting at Yarralumla will decide transitional arrangements, particularly how long Dr Hollingworth and his wife Ann - who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer - will stay at Government House.

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Mr Howard is understood to be prepared to give Dr Hollingworth "weeks rather than months" to find somewhere new to live. Dr Hollingworth will lose his $310,000-a-year salary, but be entitled to a pension.

Dr Hollingworth has been battling to hold his job since February last year when his handling of child sexual abuse claims during his time as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane was severely criticised.

His resignation was welcomed last night by Opposition Leader Simon Crean and anti-child abuse activist Hetty Johnston, who have been among the critics demanding his departure. "We welcome the resignation... it's past time and I'm glad that it happened," Ms Johnston said.

Mr Crean said Dr Hollingworth had made the right choice, but 15 months too late. He said the resignation "sends an important message that child sex abuse must not be covered up and those who fail to protect the victims and their families cannot continue to hold high office".

But civil liberties lawyer Terry O'Gorman said Dr Hollingworth was a victim of a flawed Anglican Church inquiry into the allegations and a witch-hunt in the media.

Earlier this month, an Anglican church inquiry found Dr Hollingworth had allowed a known pedophile to remain a priest and described his action as untenable. He was cleared of seven other allegations but faced widespread calls for his resignation from Labor, the Democrats, the Greens and church figures, as well as opinion polls showing most Australians wanted him to go.

Dr Hollingworth stepped aside from his job two weeks ago when it was revealed that he was facing civil action in the Victorian Supreme Court over a claim that he raped a woman at a church camp in Bendigo 40 years ago.

He denied the rape or even being at the camp, saying it was a case of mistaken identity. On Friday the court dismissed the case after it was withdrawn by the family of his accuser, Annie Jarmyn.

But controversy flared again at the weekend when the contents of a letter he wrote ten days ago to his successor as Brisbane's archbishop, Phillip Aspinall, were revealed. In the letter, Dr Hollingworth wrote about a 14-year-old girl who "started a relationship" with an adult - prompting accusations that he was blaming the victim.

Last year he faced the same criticism when he implied that a teenager initiated a sexual relationship with Bishop Donald Shearman in the mid-1950s.

In his statement yesterday, Dr Hollingworth said that the continuing criticism had been a factor in his resignation. "Despite the misplaced and unwarranted allegations made against me as Governor-General, it is clear that continuing public controversy has the potential to undermine and diminish my capacity to uphold the importance, dignity and integrity of this high office that I have been privileged and proud to occupy," he said.

Dr Hollingworth is expected to make a more detailed statement later in the week.

Mr Crean said Mr Howard was to blame for the issue developing into a consitutional crisis, and should consult more widely, including with the Opposition, and make more background checks before appointing the next Governor-General.

Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett welcomed Dr Hollingworth's decision, but only as a first step. "We need the Prime Minister to call a royal commission into child sexual assault," he said.

Dr Hollingworth becomes the third governor-general since federation to have resigned. Australia's first vice-regal representative, Lord Hopetoun, asked to be recalled to Britain in 1903 over a dispute about funding for the post.

Sir John Kerr, who sacked the Whitlam Government in 1975, quit in 1977 after being offered a United Nations post, which he never took up.